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Last Friday, Career Services hosted the All-Princeton Resource Fair for Summer Internships and Funding. The fair featured a wide array of internship and funding opportunities offered around campus–from the Lewis Center for the Arts to the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

“The variety of programs and departments represented at the All-Princeton Resource Fair is a true testament to the impressive opportunities available through Princeton,” said Andrea Rydel, CS’s Assistant Director of Internships & Career Counseling, who spearheaded the fair.

Lasting for three hours, the fair hosted 22 programs and 542 students attended. Every year, students find excellent opportunities for work, study, research, and exploration through Princeton-specific programs.

Among the students at the fair was Martina Fouquet ’16. She offered straight-forward advice for fellow students about career and summer plans, “Always explore.”

“Keep your options open,” said Fouquet. “Even if you have one field you’re really interested in, always make sure that you don’t close the door on another field you might be interested in. (Follow your heart if) it is pulling you somewhere.”

If you weren’t able to make it to the fair, here are some Princeton-specific opportunities you may not know about. Visit the Career Services website for a comprehensive list of Princeton-specific programs and opportunities.

Council of the Humanities
Princeton undergraduates, including seniors, may apply for grants of up to $3000, funded by the endowment of Edwin F. Ferris, Class of 1899, for summer internships in writing, publishing, and journalism, both print and electronic media. The goal is to help students acquire experience in news organizations, including television networks, and in companies that publish books, magazines or other journals. The grants are administered by the Council of the Humanities.

Center for Health and Wellbeing
The Center for Health and Wellbeing (CHW) is an interdisciplinary unit within the Woodrow Wilson School, which seeks to foster research and teaching on the multiple aspects of health and wellbeing in both developed and developing countries. CHW is home to the Program in Global Health and Health Policy (GHP) and to the Health Grand Challenge.

Davis International Center
The Davis International Center is committed to providing services and programs that support the growth, development, and welfare of international students and scholars on multiple levels—immigration regulatory advising and processing, cultural adjustment, social enrichment, and assistance with practical matters related to living in the U.S. The Davis IC also acts as a center for cultural and educational programming that advances cross-cultural understanding and interaction between U.S. and international students and scholars and promotes cultural competency across the University.

The following is an interview with Andrea Rydel, Career Services’ new Assistant Director for Internships. Andrea started over the summer and while she has met many students already via appointments and events, read below to find out why, if you are looking for an internship, you will want to get to know Andrea.

Casey Brown: Welcome to Career Services! So first, tell me a little about your role in the office.

Andrea Rydel: I am the Assistant Director for Internships and Career Counseling. Basically, in my role, I work with students to prepare them for internships and the search process, working on documents like resumes and cover letters and getting students ready for interviews. I also manage the Summer Experience Survey and work with employers to encourage them to post internship opportunities and recruit here.

CB: It’s great that you work with both students and employers. We just had the General Interest Career Fair a few weeks ago and there were a lot of employers there. I would imagine a lot of students were looking for internships
there, right?

AR: Yes, there were both full-time jobs and internships available at the fall fair, which is intended to offer a wide variety of opportunities for all students. I have been letting students know that the fall fair was not focused specifically on internships. Some freshmen who attended the General Interest Career Fair mentioned that they were not able to find many employers who were recruiting first-year or second-year students for internships – though they still had a chance to introduce themselves to employers. The selection of internship opportunities and requirements will be broader at our upcoming internship-focused fairs.

Internship fairs are really great for freshmen, sophomores and juniors, because the positions they’re recruiting for are specifically summer internships. They are a great way to start exploring career paths and summer opportunities. For juniors, summer opportunities can even lead to full-time job offers, which is especially nice.

On December 6, we will host the second annual All-Princeton Resource Fair for Internships & Funding from 1-4 p.m. at Frist. This is a “one-stop” fair covering all Princeton resources for summer internships and funding! Students can learn about a variety of campus resources and programs available for summer internships. Then, on February 14 (on Valentines’ Day) we are hosting the Summer Internship Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Dillon. We’ve actually partnered with the nonprofit career fair again this year, so there’s both for-profit and nonprofit organizations that come to the fair – a really great mix of opportunities and different areas of interest for students to explore. We’re making a big push with employers this year to hopefully get some more varied opportunities for students. For example, we’re trying to get some more companies from the communications industry.

CB: Great! Now, tell me a little about the Summer Experience Survey.

AR: This is a tool that we use with students who are starting their internship searches. Basically, when students fill out the survey, they will provide information for their fellow peers (like where they worked geographically, the company they worked for, whether it was full-time or part-time, etc.). We take all of that information and remove the names, so when the students come in, they can say“ I’m looking for an internship in banking,” and we can say, “These are the geographic locations students have pursued opportunities in, these are examples of organizations, these are the job functions that they were in” – whatever kind of information we can give to help them make an informed decision. If they’re thinking “I really want to be in a certain field, but I don’t really know what I want to be doing,” we have a database of information to draw on and say, “These are the types of internships you could be doing in this area.” Students can complete the survey at http://bit.ly/PrincetonSummerSurvey2013.

CB: So, it’s not just a survey, it’s also a tool for learning for the Princeton community.

AR: Absolutely. When students complete the survey, they’re also really helping their peers and future students who will benefit from the information. It also helps us to determine things like which fields our students are interested in so we can factor that into our employer outreach. It’s a great tool. I encourage all students to fill it out before the November deadline. The link is in CareerNews every Monday.

CB: So it sounds like you’re busy with a lot of things. Tell me about your average day in Career Services.

AR: It’s a lot of meetings with students! Many students are coming in right now with resume/cover letter questions. Some students are already starting career exploration, so they’re trying to figure out “What might I want to do this summer? Do I want to do an internship? Do I want to study abroad? What would help prepare me for a job search once I graduate?” Most of my day is spent speaking with students, researching for students to find resources for them if they’re going for something more specialized, coordinating the survey and planning programs that cover broad areas of career exploration and preparation. A lot of administrative tasks fold into helping the students.

CB: Do you have any hobbies that you’d like to share?

AR: I do! I like to read. I’m currently reading the newest Dan Brown book, Inferno. It’s fantastic, as all of his books are. I really enjoy fiction because it’s a great escape, but I also really like biographies and anything written by the Heath brothers or Malcolm Gladwell. I also enjoy running or practicing yoga – it clears my mind and I love the stress relief.

CB: We all do around here sometimes, especially in the fall! Do you have any particular academic or professional subjects that really interest you?

AR: I was a psychology major, and my master’s is in counseling, so I really like thinking and learning about how the human mind works and how emotions play into that. I used to do research in human emotion and scent, which is a really interesting topic. So I do keep tabs on that field because I think it’s so fascinating.

CB: That’s really interesting. What’s the number-one piece of advice you want to give to students who are looking toward their career paths, into internships or their jobs in the future.

AR: I think at times it’s di cult for students to follow their heart, because they know that they’re interested in or passionate about one thing – and they’re being pulled that way by their heart – but another part of them is saying “But I really should be doing this” or “everybody else is doing this.” My advice would be to go with your heart, do what you’re passionate about. If you’re excited by something, and you can’t wait to learn more about it, and you want to work on it or do research on it or do something professionally with it, listen to your inner voice. We typically succeed the most doing what we love.

Now is the time of year when well-meaning adults and classmates ask, “What are you doing this summer?” While I tend to answer in tones of great despair, it seems that many Princeton students have their plans all sewn up.

Natalie Scholl, a junior in the classics department, will be working in the office of Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann this summer. Scholl was drawn to the internship because it would be in her native Minnesota, only a forty-five minute drive from her parents’ house. Scholl is exploring opportunities in law for after graduation, and said, “It’s good to be involved in local politics.” Scholl credits her extracurricular activities, which include leadership roles in conservative Princeton groups, for helping her to land the internship. She made use of Career Services’ online tools and guidelines in writing her cover letter and organizing her resume. Despite resources from Career Services, Scholl said that one of the hardest things about the internship search “was just knowing where to look.”

Brandon Zamudio ’14, a politics major, will be interning in France this summer. Through OIP, he found a museum internship at Musée de Compiègne. “You can put that I’m not interested in museums,” Zamudio said, who looks at the internship as “exposure to culture and language.” Before coming to Princeton, Zamudio had never taken French, but is now looking at a French certificate. He sees the internship as an opportunity to “be independent internationally and in a different language.” Though the internship application was similar to that of a domestic internship, there was one noticeable difference – the interview was in French. Zamudio said he prepared for it “just like in any other interview,” though he took care to brush up on specific phrases he thought he would need. “If I have a good answer but can’t articulate it, what’s the point?” Zamudio said. Clarified 4/19/2012: Zamudio, while not exploring museum work as a long-term option, still looks forward to exploring related professions during his summer internship.

Also planning on an international internship is Reena Glaser, a sophomore in the psychology department. Glaser found her consulting internship through Birthright Excel, which connects students with internships in Israel. Before coming to Princeton, Glaser had thought of becoming a dentist, and last summer she shadowed dentists and other doctors. However, through personality tests and sessions with Career Services advisors, Glaser found that consulting would be a better fit. She applied for around 30 internships, but was rejected from all but this one. Glaser succeeded in spite of the obstacles of changing her career path in the last year and having “no business learning on campus.” Internships are essential for supplementing a business resume.

Though Zamudio and Glaser’s internships are taking them to different countries, remote internships allow the work to come to you. Lizzie Martin ’14, who is in the Woodrow Wilson School, has two remote internships lined up for the summer. Martin said these opportunities are rare, but found “applying for them to be relatively easy.” She will be working for literary agency and for a literary magazine, which requires her to read manuscripts and write reports. Martin has been working for the literary agency, which is based in New York City, since January. Meeting with Career Services advisors helped Martin land both jobs. “I have a solid resume because of the help I got in Career Services,” Martin said.

These students all have different plans for the summer, but they all approached their searches with great diligence and patience. It can take time to find a dream internship, and sometimes the perfect internship doesn’t present itself right away. What counts is making the most of any opportunity given.